Something deeply has been broken as a result of the Fall. Our relationship with God, each other, and ourselves. Even amid their brokenness and sin, God shows grace to Adam and Eve. For one they don’t die right away; God clothes them, even the curse is a sign of God’s grace. For example, the curse of the “thorns and thistles” in Genesis 3:18. Into the very fabric of life in both our relationships (3:16) and work (3:17-19), life is met with pain, difficulty, and frustration.

How are thorns and thistles an act of God’s grace? The results of the thorns and thistles are brokenness, which should lead us to Jesus, the only one who can truly restore us.

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Jesus – Matthew 11:28

But rather than coming to Christ with our brokenness and vulnerability, we either hide, fight or flight.

Hide

Some of us put on functional facades that mask how much our lives are frail, fractured, and imperfect. Hiding can take the form of deflection. Looking at other things and neglecting to address the damaged parts of our lives. Focusing on success is a way we avoid looking at how hurt we really are.

Fight

While others turn to anger, bitterness, and violence when frustrated by the thorns and thistles of life. Usually, rather than address, the core of the problem release their anger in misguided ways.

Flight

Others flee the scene of the crime, the source of our hurt by suppressing our pain in addictive behaviors. When we experience the torn and thistles of this world, we run from it or numb it with other things. Pastors anesthetize their pain by building and growing their church. We become zealous for ministry as a way of avoiding and dealing with the problem at home. Women pour into their homes and children’s activity to avoid dealing with the deficits in their lives. Men who become successful and iconic to others at work but failing and miserable at home.

God releases the curse in order to drive us to our knees and to seek him, to recognize our need for a Savior.

Pete Scazarro, Emotional Healthy Church